Czech-born, London-based actor Herbert Lom, who was best known for playing
Charles Dreyfus in the Pink Panther films, has died aged 95.

Veteran film and television actor Herbert Lom, best known for his appearances in the Pink Panther films, has died aged 95.

The Prague-born actor starred in more than 100 films in a career spanning over 50 years.

Since the Sixties, he had played Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus, Inspector Clouseau's long-suffering superior, in numerous Pink Panther films alongside Peter Sellers. Fittingly, his last film appearance was as Dreyfus in the 1993 film Son of Pink Panther.

He also appeared in The Ladykillers (1955), Spartacus (1960), The Phantom of the Opera (1962), and as Napoleon Bonaparte in the 1956 film adaptation of Tolstoy's War and Peace.

Lom was born Herbert Karel Angelo Kuchacevič ze Schluderpacheru in Prague in 1917. He had been based in Britain since escaping the impending Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1939.